Not even for a mont did I believe that the two-pronged attack was a coincidence. Naturally, that didn't an Drakka and heretics were in alignnt. It was likelier that heretics had been observing Drakka forces, and chose to launch their attack at the sa ti.
Then again, an alliance wouldn't have been the shock of a lifeti either.
Ultimately, the possible lack of an alliance mattered very little in the short term. Collaboration or not, we still needed to deal with a two-pronged attack at once. And, since they attacked from two completely different angles, coordination was not a challenge for them.
To make things worse, both enemies were familiar with the many tricks I could pull, and an offensive implied that they had developed counterasures.
"The question is whether they would be able to handle the new versions," I said to myself as I stepped through the gate, once again at the mountaintop, dragging a giant lizard corpse with , glad that I had already installed a rail to make it even easier.
People didn't react to the giant lizard, admittedly, it wasn't too unfamiliar sight for them, so it wasn't a shock to see people move with purpose, so to the underground shelters, while the others moved to their positions.
Looking down, I could see more than a dozen trains returning to the towns, coming from the outer mines, each filled with several hundred tons of tal ore to be processed.
They weren't the only team that was on the move. Several teams of farrs were returning from outside the walls, each led by a Mana Tender, returning from their planting tasks.
The dungeon wasn't the only place we had been populating with stronger variants of vegetation. With more than eight thousand farrs at our location, each in a leveling frenzy, we were developing a surprising variance of skills and perks. So were able to use the trees to fight like Logan, so directly controlled them, while others used them for scouting purposes.
I wasn't aware of most of the details, as Terry was responsible for overseeing these new variants, with Harold and Rosie occasionally chipping in. Other than making specialized tools whenever requested, I stayed away.
As much as I wished to explore every single detail about their new perks, I lacked the ti, which had a certain amount of irony considering I had wasted three years, but I even lacked the ti to appreciate that.
So, I limited myself to reading the reports Terry had provided to , going through them with a red pen to suggest so new thods and experints, hoping that I would co across sothing useful.
There was one exception I might have made, which was also the variant we were yet to create. Intelligence variant. It might have been different if I could have focused on that for a week or two, but with everything going on, it was impossible.
It seed that my human-computers wouldn't be here for a while.
"Dragon One, report," I called loudly even as I dropped the giant lizard down. "And, soone tells where everyone is," I declared before I went inside, bringing out another giant lizard.
Though, there was already another giant lizard pushing through the gap while I responded, this ti a flying variant attempting to fly above the breach before I cut it down into two, and pulled out another lizard.
When I ca out, I was looking at forty fighters, each decked in crimson full plate armor, and carrying both huge spears and shields, reminiscent of a phalanx, led by another with a different shaped armor, carrying a blade instead.
"Dragon One here and reporting, sir," Logan declared proudly as he slamd his chest, his two-handed blade taller than him on his back.
He had not only proven himself when training with Harold, but also he had managed to push his skill to the peak of Legendary, which unlocked quite a few tricks to his ability to reform plants as weapons, even managing to achieve a minor class upgrade that increased his Vitality even further.
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Altogether, he was clearly strong enough to lead Dragon One, our — rather pretentiously nad — new elite unit, specialized for hunting lizards, for this exact purpose.
"The situation at the breach is getting intense, and I need your team to be ready to take over if necessary," I said.
"We can go right now, sir," he declared.
"No, not before the insect army is decimated first," I said. "I don't need your attention split both ways. Be on standby, find out where Rosie and Harold are, and learn the situation with the Drakkan army," I said as I jumped back to the fifth floor, killing and pulling elite monsters out while I waited for the two.
I went back and forth multiple tis, taking rely seconds as I pulled more and more boss monsters, surpassing my expectations, making glad that I had erred on the side of caution while building the defenses near the breach. At the sa ti, I learned that the Drakkan army was still so distance away, allowing to focus on the breach for the mont.
At one point, I was forced to change my plan. "Take points in the battle, Logan. Show the power of Dragon One," I ordered.
"Yes, sir," he declared happily, which didn't surprise . It was his first proper battle, and it was inevitably exciting until the bodies started piling; sothing we had been shockingly lucky to avoid during our last two battles.
I doubted it would continue to hold, considering we were pincered by two overwhelming forces.
I expanded my aura of decay as Logan and the other forty elite farr-turned-fighters took their positions in the inner fortress, the steam engine roaring into life, but I didn't stop pulling lizard corpses… Until I saw Liam approaching. "Find soone good with logistics," I ordered him. "Soone that can lead it so that boss carcasses don't accumulate."
"I can do that, sir," he suggested.
"No, I need you to handle the shells against Drakka, or anything unexpected," I replied.
Liam was quick to arrange a team to use the buried tracks to bring the boss carcasses out, another team quickly brought them to one of the many warehouses that we had around the gate — at this point, they were very familiar with processing and storing boss lizards.
Freed from both tasks, I paused for a mont, watching Logan and the nineteen others activate all defensive asures we had installed. The tal walls were raised, and all the gates but one slamd shut to force the lizards into one direction, steam-powered ballistas driving huge tal bolts to their bodies to immobilize them. The shells — improved from the last ti — exploded in waves, dealing with anything below the bosses, clearing out their surroundings.
And, whenever one was immobilized, a team of ten left the fortress, moving rapidly thanks to the familiar movent of their Rare spear skills — one that consud most of our remaining reserves of that particular skill — to deliver a combined killing blow with their tall spears.
It went smoothly, as their whole equipnt had been designed for that purpose. Their interlocked shields easily ignored the fla attacks of the lizard, the tiny gaps allowing them to deliver their aggression perfectly.
That had two aims. Pinned down, it was faster to kill the lizard with their Vitality attacks rather than pelting it with ballista bolts for a minute.
More importantly, it was a good source of leveling, especially since they were still in their fifties, and each boss would still give them a considerable boost for their next level. With the frequency of lizards appearing, I wouldn't be surprised if so of them reached their seventies.
Hopefully, without losing any of their numbers.
I watched as the ten pulled the lizard back, retreating to the fortress, while the second team darted out, replacing the sa approach, then the third and fourth. Rotation was there to both balance their leveling, and to make sure they had the ti to recover their Health. The rich nutrient solution was sothing we had in extre abundance — one benefit of having a town made almost exclusively of high-level farrs.
The only one that didn't act was Logan, ready to intervene in case of ergency. One that happened sooner than I expected, when the section behind the first wall started to get too crowded.
It was important, as normally boss monsters avoided touching each other, but the crowd behind the wall forced them. One boss monster climbed over the other after using the first one as a shield to avoid the first salvo of ballista bolts.
Logan rushed forward with a battlecry, his blade already raised. On his way, he passed near one of the fire-repellant trees, and the tree reacted to him by wrapping around him, coating both his armor and sword.
Logan crashed against the beast, delivering a devastating strike. Ordinarily, the beast would have recovered in seconds, but Logan had a trick of his own. The tree bark that covered his blade stayed with the wound, attacking the beast even further.
The bark from his armor flowed to his sword for another strike while the lizard desperately bit off its own limb, only for the next blow to land directly to its head.
His unique skill was perfect to deal with dungeon monsters so long as the conditions were right.
It wasn't the first ti I watched him perform, but that didn't make it any less impressive.
But, the show ca to an end when I saw Rosie arrive, her dour expression not making hopeful about the situation.
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